On most nights, Jaydon Eldridge can be found on a basketball court.

The Mexico senior became the latest Bulldog in the program to score his 1,000th career point in a Thursday loss at Class 2 No. 5 Harrisburg. Eldridge followed that night with 27 points in a bounce-back 74-60 victory over School of the Osage at home.

“I’ve been playing all four years so it’s a pretty big accomplishment for me,” Eldridge said. “It’s what I’ve been working up to.”

Eldridge returned to Mexico this season as the team’s leading scorer and has picked up where he left off last season, especially in the second half. Speaking of second half, Eldridge dropped 20 points in the latter quarters to rally the Bulldogs from a 34-32 deficit to Osage on Friday.

On that night, Eldridge was seen by everybody at Gary Filbert Court as he put in basket after basket and at halftime when he held his commemorative 1,000-point basketball with head coach Darren Pappas. However, Eldridge said he became such a good scorer after the many hours without eyes on him.

“It’s unseen hours,” Eldridge said. “You put the time in, it shows up on the scoreboard. I come up here every single night and just get my work in.”

Other than the hours of practice he has spent with the team on Gary Filbert Court, Eldridge said he isn’t satisfied with just that. At around 8 or 9 p.m. during weekdays, he said he can definitely be called a gym rat as he and junior Kaden Benne are plugging away.

Pappas said Eldridge is a player who is dangerous “in rhythm” but can also be “relentless” in how he plays. Just because Eldridge is struggling from one area doesn’t mean he can be disregarded by opposing defenses.

“He’s put in a lot of time outside the gym with unseen hours,” Pappas said. “When things aren’t clicking, he’s finding other ways to impact the game. We continue to preach that to him. If the shot is not falling from the perimeter, get to your midrange and get to the rim.”

Eldridge said he has been playing eight or nine years, including this past summer of playing travel ball with a team out of Kansas City. He said that was a lot of miles but helped him a lot so he is grateful for the main people who made that possible.

“My mom and dad put all this money in for me,” Eldridge said. “It’s a lot of money travelling all year and all around summer time and just getting me to practice and everything.”

When teams face this year’s Bulldogs in the postseason, Pappas said they will have a big challenge defending Eldridge because there is more than meets the eye.

“I want people to realize he is more than just a 3-point shooter,” Pappas said. “He’s a threat guy from all three levels: from around the rim, midrange and from the perimeter.”